July 02, 2008

July 6, 2008 - Eighth Sunday After Pentecost

I know it’s a cliché, but God does really work in mysterious
ways.For some reason, there is often a
human responsibility, a human action that God seeks out to make things come to
pass.Faith in God’s providence isn’t
just sitting back and waiting for God to do something.One of my friends in college had a sign in
his dorm that expressed this well: “Never take action with prayer, but never
pray without taking action.”

That kind of faith is what is found in our reading from
Genesis this week.Sarah has passed
away, and Abraham figures his time is probably drawing near as well and starts
putting his affairs in order.And one
of those major affairs that needed to be settled is the future of the
household.Isaac needed a wife.

And so Abraham sends his head servant, the one who oversees
all of his household, off to his homeland where he had first heard the call
from God so many years ago to find a wife for Isaac from “my kindred, from my
father’s house” (Gen 24:40).And even
though Abraham has come to understand the importance of the promise and the
land that God is promising to his offspring, so much so that Abraham insists
Isaac not return to that land at any cost, there is an intrinsic tie between
the future promise and the past.The
future of the promise is found, not in the promised land, but back where the
journey had started.

But the way that the promise is secured is interesting.There are a lot of references to the deity
in the story, but God takes no direct action at anytime in chapter 24.Instead, Abraham, the servant, Rebekah, and
Laban and Bethuel are the actors, the agents of securing the future of the
covenant.Most of the characters show
great piety throughout the story, praying and supplicating God for assistance,
confessing God’s blessing and asking for it in return.

And the two figures that stand out the most are the two
central figures of the middle parts of the story (vv. 11-27 & vv. 28-61):
the servant and Rebekah.First, the
servant shows great faith in the God of Abraham throughout the narrative, but
especially with that great prayer of faith found in vv. 12-14, where he asks
God to reveal to him the correct woman through a particular action.

One could interpret this prayer as asking God for a sign,
but maybe that isn’t the case or at the very least isn’t strictly meant to be
that way.Maybe the servant was looking
for a certain type of person for Isaac.The request is that when he asks for water, the correct person be the
one that offers water to not just him, but to his camels as well.As the great rabbinic commentator Rashi
pointed out, this sign is an appropriate one because the correct woman to marry
into Abraham’s house must also so the same kind of kindness and generosity of
her soon-to-be father-in-law (Jon D. Levenson, “Genesis” in The Jewish Study
Bible).

How often do we sit at the well waiting for a miraculous
sign, when the reality is that we already know what is needed, and do we
sometimes forget that God is expecting us to do some of the work?That doesn’t mean we don’t pray and reflect
and seek God’s guidance, but we also have a responsibility to be a part of the
solution.Maybe the servant’s prayer
was not, “God, give me a sign to reveal to me the exact person you destined for
this task” but instead was a prayer asking, “God, help me find the kind of
person that Isaac and Abraham’s household will need to face the future.”

So maybe the test isn’t a test of God but a test of Rebekah
and her character.This character that
is revealed in her generosity is later upheld in the narrative when there is
conflict between the servant and Rebekah’s father and brother.Though they have already agreed to the
marriage, they want her to stay a little longer; the servant doesn’t want to
delay anymore.When the question is
placed to Rebekah, she is quick to echo the same quick response that Abraham
showed in chapter 12.

Though Abraham does not speak, he goes “just as the LORD
told him” (12:4).In much the same way,
when asked if she would go Rebekah doesn’t waffle but gives a simple, “I will”
(24:59).She has chosen her path, and
does not allow anything to delay what she might have come to understand as
God’s leading.

And so she returns with the servant and, in what is maybe one
of the most touching and moving scenes in the biblical narrative, meets Isaac
and there are hints in the text that there is true love and feeling in a
relationship that could have been nothing more than a legal transaction and a
way to provide security in the form of an heir.Rebekah seems to be intrigued by Isaac at first glance, and the
final verse of the chapter notes “Isaac loved her” (24:67).

The text seems to assume that God was at work in all of
this, though God is never an active figure in the story.Instead, God works through agents, through
these people in the ordinary circumstances, through their ordinary actions, and
through their ordinary societal functions to provide for the future God has
planned.And even more so, God may have
provided far and beyond what was expected.What was intended to strictly be a legal transaction that insured the
family future had also become, through the faithfulness of the servant and
Rebekah, a far greater blessing than they could have imagined.

For some strange reason, God has made us partners in this
promise to the world, that the world might be redeemed and that peace and mercy
and justice would come to reign in the hearts of the people of this world.I don’t understand it, because God works
through the people (that is, us) that are part of the problem in the first
place.But at the same time, we often
find ourselves surprised time and again what God can and will do when we try to
be faithful.

Comments

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Many thanks!

Last week, one of my members who is from Ghana approached me and said that although she and her husband had been married in Ghana (complete with dowry transaction) that it was not considered legal by US standards. She asked if she might have a wedding in church - during the regular service for the Lord's Day and if possible, if it could be next Sunday!

Imagine my delight at realizing that this story from Genesis was the lectionary for this week!

The mirroring between this woman's story, and that of Rebekah's is amazing. Your scribbles helped me to focus a bit more on the story itself, and at God's loving hand.

Other Theological Web Resources

Recommended Reading

Thomas Cahill: How the Irish Saved Civilization (Hinges of History)Wish I had read this years ago. Fascinating book, providing insight into the life of St. Patrick, and arguing for the positive role Celtic monasticism had in preserving the history and literature of the classical world. Plus, I think that Cahill's observations about Patrick's mission to the Irish also speaks to some of the things the emergent movement is wrestling with in the contemporary church.